Victorias Milling Co. vs.

Municipality of Victorias GR L-21183, 27 September 1968 En Banc,

Sanchez (J): 9 concur

Facts: Ordinance 1 (1956) was approved by the municipal council of Victorias by way of an
amendment to 2 municipal ordinances separately imposing license taxes on operators of
sugar centrals and sugar refineries. The changes were: (1) with respect to sugar centrals, by
increasing the rates of license taxes; and (2) as to sugar refineries, by increasing the rates of
license taxes as well as teh range of graduated schedule of annual output capacity. Victorias
Milling questioned the validity of Ordinance 1 as it, among others, allegedly singled out
Victorias Milling Co. since it is the only operator of a sugar central and a sugar refinery
within the jurisdiction of the municipality.

Issue: Whether Ordinance 1 is discriminatory.

Held: The ordinance does not single out Victorias as the only object of the ordinance but is made to
apply to any sugar central or sugar refinery which may happen to operate in the municipality. The
fact that Victorias Milling is actually the sole operator of a sugar central and a sugar refinery does not
make the ordinance discriminatory. The ordinance is unlike that in Ormoc Sugar Company vs.
Municipal Board of Ormoc City, which specifically spelled out Ormoc Sugar as the subject of the
taxation, the name of the company herein was never mentioned in the ordinance.